NEW YORK: United States stocks ended higher on Thursday (May 29) as shares of Nvidia gained after its quarterly results, while investors digested a late-afternoon court ruling that reinstated the most sweeping of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The appeals court ruling came a day after a trade court had ordered an immediate block on the tariffs.
Trading was choppy for much of the day and indexes ended well off their highs of the session, however, with investors trying to digest the rulings and as shares of Salesforce fell 3.3 per cent. Salesforce’s stock was down even as the enterprise software provider raised its annual revenue and adjusted profit forecasts.
“Trump has already rolled back most of these tariffs anyway, so these court rulings are just headlines,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investments in New York.
“As long as the market doesn’t tank on the news, it’s just a secondary” thing, he said.
Nvidia gained 3.2 per cent after the company late on Wednesday reported upbeat sales results, driven by customers stockpiling AI chips ahead of US export restrictions on China.
The company, however, warned that the new curbs are expected to cut US$8 billion from its current-quarter sales.
Optimism about corporate earnings and Nvidia in particular is providing some support, said Oliver Pursche, senior vice president, adviser for Wealthspire Advisors in Westport, Connecticut.
“It’s about corporate earnings in general,” he said.
Nvidia, which is now up just 3.6 per cent for the year, was the last of the “Magnificent Seven” megacap tech and growth companies to report results for this earnings period.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 117.03 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 42,215.73, the S&P 500 gained 23.62 points, or 0.40 per cent, to 5,912.17 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 74.93 points, or 0.39 per cent, to 19,175.87.
